No Excuse for Dogfighting

I like Whoopi Goldberg. I have admired Whoopi Goldberg. But I fear that she has contracted some form of spongiform encephalopathy and her brain has been partially eaten away by a prion.

Yesterday, in her debut as co-host of "The View," she spoke about Michael Vick’s dogfighting crimes and said "He’s from the South, from the Deep South… This is part of his cultural upbringing."

What is she talking about? Dogfighting is a felony in every state in the South, and it’s been that way for a long time. Does she think people in the South are incapable of distinguishing between sadism and sport?

And let’s get real about dogfighters. Dogfighters are so well aware of the serious criminal nature of their enterprise that they live in a world of secret passwords, they fight in hidden-away locations, and they speak in tongues to one another. Let us not forget Michael Vick’s appellation of "Ookie" in his otherworld of dogfighting.

It’s an insult to excuse dogfighting as part of urban culture. Of the South. Of African American culture. Or of any culture. Dogfighting is almost universally despised. 

It’s a crime. Despicable. Barbaric. Inexcusable.